The short-tailed mongoose (''Urva brachyura'') is a

mongoose A mongoose is a small terrestrial carnivorous mammal belonging to the family Herpestidae. This family is currently split into two subfamilies, the Herpestinae and the Mungotinae. The Herpestinae comprises 23 living species that are native to so ...

species native to

Peninsular Malaysia Peninsular Malaysia ( ms, Semenanjung Malaysia; Jawi: سمننجڠ مليسيا), or the States of Malaya ( ms, Negeri-negeri Tanah Melayu; Jawi: نڬري-نڬري تانه ملايو), also known as West Malaysia or the Malaysian Peninsula, ...

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

and

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

. It inhabits

evergreen forest An evergreen forest is a forest made up of evergreen trees. They occur across a wide range of climatic zones, and include trees such as conifers and holly in cold climates, eucalyptus, Live oak, acacias, magnolia, and banksia in more temperate zone ...

and rural gardens from sea level to an elevation of . It is listed as

Near Threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as that may be vulnerable to endangerment in the near future, but it does not currently qualify fo ...

on the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

since 2008. It was first described by

John Edward Gray John Edward Gray, FRS (12 February 1800 – 7 March 1875) was a British zoologist. He was the elder brother of zoologist George Robert Gray and son of the pharmacologist and botanist Samuel Frederick Gray (1766–1828). The same is used for ...

in 1837. It is red-brown to black and has black limbs. The head is grayish with a black spot on the chin. Its total body length is including a short tail. It weighs about .

Subspecies

* ''U. b. brachyura'' * ''U. b. hosei'' Francis, C.M. & Payne, J. (1985). A field guide to the mammals of Borneo. Malaysia: Sabah Society * ''U. b. javanensis'' * ''U. b. palawanus'' * ''U. b. parvus'' * ''U. b. sumatrius''

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q947395 Urva (genus) Carnivorans of Malaysia Fauna of Sumatra Mammals of Borneo Mammals of Brunei Mammals of Indonesia Mammals described in 1837 Taxa named by John Edward Gray Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN